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Forums - Gaming - What defines a gaming "generation" ?

BornFirst. on 25 December 2007
Magnific0 said:

Saying the Wii is using last-gen technology is actually more of a compliment given its obvious success. If memory serves me right I think it would be the first time it's done (successfuly) that a home console is released with previous gen tech and dominates the market. Notice that I say "would" (I have to be respectful, this generation is not over), however, it's more than obvious the Wii's a success. Nintendo had already tried with N64 to achieve success with an inferior tech system, and the gap was not as wide as with the Wii vs current next-gen systems, you could even argue (and rightfully so) that N64 was in many aspects superior to the PS1, but the use of the cartridge media is what made it ultimately tech inferior.


 Thats not Exacly true, the Nes Was released in the 80's but used 70's tech, which was going against the Game centric Pc's then, which were alreadyusing 16 bit tech. People were saying the same thing about the nes that they were saying about the Wii.



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andors on 25 December 2007

gen·er·a·tion  / Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[jen-uh-rey-shuhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
1. the entire body of individuals born and living at about the same time: the postwar generation. 
2. the term of years, roughly 30 among human beings, accepted as the average period between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring. 
3. a group of individuals, most of whom are the same approximate age, having similar ideas, problems, attitudes, etc. Compare Beat Generation, Lost Generation. 
4. a group of individuals belonging to a specific category at the same time: Chaplin belonged to the generation of silent-screen stars. 
5. a single step in natural descent, as of human beings, animals, or plants. 

It can be said that Wii use last-gen technology in term of cpu and graphic card but it cannot be said that Wii is last-gen as gen basically refer to the time of the console release.

If a console of the technology of a sega saturn is release tml, it will still be a console of this gen



iconeternal on 25 December 2007

Hello all,
I think that a generation is eventually defined by the rise and fall of the dominant format of that time period.
Looking back Ive heard the phrase 'new generation of gaming' with the launch of most consoles, ive even bought into it a few times, but now the different gens are all based around the winning machines launch.
For instance a lot of '5th gen' machines dont fit into their catagory in either technology and/ or time frames: 3DO, CD32 or even and I hate to say it the Saturn.



'You should try everything once in your life except incest, homosexuality and morris dancing' - Oscar Wylde (sort of)

Kasz216 on 25 December 2007
Magnific0 said:
Perhaps the Wii changes the concept of "gaming generation", wouldn't you say? You must admit until now, it really has been about chips and graphics, what's been used to define "generations", not controllers or innovative features.

Nah, hasn't been that way since the SNES. The NES and SNES eras were big like that because they were considered the 8 and 16 bit eras. You could call the PS1 era the "3-D era" as well if you'd want. Since then... or even before then for that matter it wasn't tech based.